Day 5
The 2009 Festival featured Memory is the Mother of All Wisdom by Sara Cooper and Zach Redler. After the Festival, the show was a produced at Barrington Stage Company (a NAMT member theatre!), and with the help of a National Fund for New Musicals grant, Transport Group (another NAMT member theatre!) produced the show Off-Broadway this past year, now with the new title: The Memory Show. Though the title changed, the cast stayed the same through all of these productions.
Look below for images of Leslie Kritzer and Catherine Cox staring in this powerful piece—4 years apart!
National
Fund grants of $10,000 to support full productions have been awarded to:
Barrington Stage Company
(Pittsfield, MA) for Southern
Comfort by Dan Collins and Julianne Wick Davis. This project
previously received a Project Development Grant in support of its time at
CAP21, a Writers Residency Grant for its time at Playwrights Horizons and was
presented in NAMT's 2012 Festival of New Musicals.
Transport Group (New
York, NY) for The Memory
Show by Sara Cooper and Zachary Redler, with support from Stacey
Mindich Productions. The
Memory Show was presented in NAMT's 2009 Festival of New Musicals.
National
Fund grants between $2,500 and $5,000 to support a workshop or reading have
been awarded to:
An interview
with Dan Collins & Julianne Wick Davis, writers of 2012 Festival Show Southern Comfort, about creating such a bold
show, how far it's already come and preparing for its upcoming presentation at
Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, MA. The show is a past recipient of a
Writers Residency Grant (Playwrights Horizons) and a Project Development Grant
(CAP21) from our National Fund for New Musicals.
Based on the Sundance
Award-winning documentary, this heartwarming musical about a group of
transgender friends living in rural Georgia is, at its core, a love story
between their patriarch, Robert Eads, and newcomer Lola Cola. Through a unique
folk and bluegrass-inspired score, the musical chronicles a year in the lives
of this unique American family as they courageously defy the odds by simply
remaining on the land to which they were born, reminding us that home is where
we find comfort in our skin.
What were the
first steps you took when you were asked to turn a documentary into a musical
and how did you find the story's voice?
We were approached by Tom Caruso and Bob DuSold, who hold the stage rights to
the documentary, to consider adapting it into a musical. After watching the
documentary, Julianne and I had a few discussions about what music would mean
to these characters, and in this environment, and if/how it could enhance their
story. We began by discussing a number of intriguing points in the documentary
that might be able to sing, and ultimately wrote the solo "I'm
Goin'," which Robert sings near the end of the second act. While the
documentary's subject matter, and our discussions, revealed many challenges to
be faced in adapting the story to the musical stage, writing "I'm
Goin'" revealed just the opposite: it was one of those rare moments in
which each part of the process (spotting the song, writing the lyric, setting
the lyric) unraveled with great and exciting ease. Energized by that rewarding
experience, we moved forward. Inspired by the seasonal framing of the
documentary, we explored the score by creating a song for each of the seasons -
to be sung by an onstage folk band. It was these seasons, coupled with
"I'm Goin'" and the conceit of our onstage band that served as the
foundation for the rest of our process. But it wasn't all beautifully simple,
of course. Adapting a documentary meant we had to take some license in the
storytelling for dramatic purposes, which is a tricky undertaking as it was
important to us to be able to keep the integrity of the true story and
characters (most of whom are still living), while also ensuring that we were
creating a dramatic narrative that would engage theater audiences - because to
fail at the latter would mean that the story, for all of its good intentions,
would never reach much further than the page.
Southern
Comfort has evolved a bit from your first reading at Playwrights Horizon
a few years ago to your presentation at the Festival. How has it changed over
the years?
Most of the developments and changes in Southern
Comfort have revolved around either the integration of the onstage
band or our exploration of the narrative outside of the specific action of the
documentary. We've conceived the band in a myriad of ways; a group of vocalists
who are separate from the instrumentalists; a male and a female soloist who act
as the 'lead singers' of the band; etc., but we found, particularly through our
experience at CAP21 (discussed below), that the concept of having the
instrumentalists present as both singers and actors really resonated with
audiences. As for the narrative, Kate Davis (the producer/director/editor of
the original documentary) has been incredibly generous, supportive and gracious
throughout our entire process; one such occasion is when she shared with us the
original transcripts of documentary, which contain many scenes and interviews
that were not part of the film's final edit. These transcripts, coupled with
her encouraging attitude toward our process, have been (and continue to be)
invaluable as we explore the world, characters and their stories as they have
come to exist on the musical stage.
You had a
great workshop production at CAP21 in 2012. What did you learn from getting the
show up on its feet?
An interview with Sara Cooper and Zach Redler, writers of The Memory Show from our 2009 Festival, about the life of the show and its upcoming Off Broadway production.
The Memory Show is a two-person comic tragedy about the troubled relationship of a woman who has just been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and her estranged daughter who moves back home to take care of her.
What has happened with The Memory Show (other than a shorter title) since the Festival in 2009?
We had a reading and then a production at Barrington Stage Company, which was an excellent experience. The Memory Show was also translated into Korean and produced in Korea this fall season. We got to go out there and see it, and it was awesome!
What was it like having the production up at Barrington and seeing the show on its feet?
We were so fortunate to have Bill [Finn] and Julie [Boyd] supporting us and believing in our work, and to have such an amazing director and MD and actors and designers. It was a really smooth process. We were so happy with how it turned out.
What has changed in the show since your NAMT Festival reading and what has changed since Barrington?We did some rewriting after NAMT, and then Joe [Calarco, director] and Vadim [Feichtner, music director] were really helpful in figuring out what to cut at Barrington. Basically, the piece has just gotten tighter.How did The Transport Group production come about?
Barrington produced a closed reading in New York, and Jack and Lori from Transport came to see it. We love them. We can't wait for the production.What is most exciting about finally having your show Off Broadway?
Because the piece is so personal, we are just really excited to share it. The piece takes place in Brooklyn and so the tone is very New Yorky. We feel like it's just coming home.
Why should people come check out The Memory Show?
It's a wonderful cast and creative team (truly!!!) and they have really brought our little two-person musical to life. We poured a lot of ourselves (and our parents, and our grandparents) into this piece, and we think it says something very truthful about parent-child relationships. We hope this is a show that is universal because it's so real to us.
For more information about The Memory Show, please visit www.transportgroup.org.
